SAN FRANCISCO — Any Obamacare replacement plan should continue providing coverage for low-income people, the CEO of drugmaker Roche said Tuesday.
The Affordable Care Act is “complex,” Daniel O’Day said at the JPMorgan Healthcare Investor Conference, adding that he wouldn’t “state politics.” But the law’s extension of insurance and subsidies to the low income was its top selling point, O’Day said.
“The thing we liked about [the healthcare law] was the objective to try to increase the net for the underinsured in the U.S.,” O’Day said. “We would hope any new plan would continue to support those people who fall in the gap and we’re firmly committed to getting our medicines to all patients in the U.S.
“Regardless of what happens with the Affordable Care Act, we’re going to focus on getting medicines to patients,” he said.
The major biotech conference is being held as Republicans in Congress discuss repealing and replacing President Obama’s signature healthcare law. Numerous insurers and drug makers here have expressed deep concerns with eliminating the law’s subsidies for the low income and its Medicaid expansion.
